Murder of Crows discussion

I read Nine Lives by the same author and I thought it was a good book, so I was excited to be able to read this one and after completing the book, I have to say that Peter Swanson is probably one of my top favorite authors. His books aren’t the typical clear cut plot that you think you’re getting yourself into, but not in a confusing way moreso a mysterious that-was-never-on-my-radar kind of way. This book especially I thought was very clever and there were many different opportunities to choose for an ending, and I think the one that he chose was great.

It looks like it is the first of a series (at least according to Goodreads), but I’m not sure how the series would continue to progress. It was a very closed book kind of ending that I’m wondering if the next book might be a similar idea with different characters, but I’m really not sure.

This book also made reference to a lot of other books (so if you don’t want spoilers for most of the books, then I would wait to read this book) and I was excited to add some of them to my TBR list. A few of them are not old books but for sure not newly released books. The “eight perfect murders” that are referred to in the title (this is not a spoiler, you learn these titles very early on) include: The Red House Mystery, Malice Aforethought, The A.B.C. Murders, Double Indemnity, Strangers on a Train, The Drowner, Deathtrap, and The Secret History. These are books that you should either read before reading this book, or if you don’t care about spoilers/don’t plan on reading any of them, then buy Eight Perfect Murders immediately. The author also makes reference to other authors such as John D. MacDonald, Mickey Spillane, Agatha Christie, Alistair MacLean, Ed McBain, and John Dickson Carr which I also made note of and bought a few of their books. I feel like this book is the author’s way of calling out his favorite books and authors which I think is really amazing. I also enjoyed that his thoughts on each of the books were presented through his main character.